text:
Dubai sees 34% rise in trademark files registered for protection
Dubai - The rise indicates brand owners recognising the importance of the retail sector.
The number of trademark files registered for protection in Dubai posted a 34 per cent increase in 2019 compared to the previous year, reflecting the remarkable progress achieved by the Dubai Economy in protecting intellectual property and enhancing business competitiveness in the emirate.
In 2019, commercial agency files also registered a 127 per cent as trademark owners and commercial agencies worldwide continued to respond enthusiastically to the intellectual property protection drive, Dubai Economy said on Sunday. Trademark files registered at the Commercial Compliance & Consumer Protection in 2019 reached 5,157 and 50 commercial agency files were also registered during the same period, while in 2018 the figures were 3,844 and 22 respectively.
While US brands led in terms of trademark files registered in 2019 - 1,585 files, or 31 per cent of the total, the UAE stood next with 818 files (16 per cent) while German brands went up by seven per cent to 373 files. France, Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, British Virgin Islands, India, China, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Canada were also among the top 15 source countries for files registered in 2019.
The rising number of trademarks and agencies registered shows the importance of Dubai Economy, not only in attracting the best and highest-quality brands from around the world but also in providing multi-channel intellectual property protection, said Mohammed Ali Rashed Lootah, CEO of CCCP.
"The 34 per cent increase in trademark files also indicates brand owners recognising the importance of the retail sector and purchasing power in Dubai as well as the healthy competition among them and their confidence in Dubai Economy in protecting their rights," said Lootah.
The Intellectual Property Protection Department in Dubai Economy received 298 complaints relating to trademark infringement in 2019, which was a marginal increase of one per cent in comparison to 2018. Meanwhile, infringement cases from commercial agencies showed a decline of 17 per cent, from 42 to 35, between 2018 and 2019.
According to Dubai Economy, US trademarks were involved in 58 of the trademark infringement complaints in 2019 while Emirati and French brands were involved in 43 cases. Brands from Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the UK, Japan, and Spain were also involved and the remaining complaints were related to 24 different countries.
Perfumes were the leading category of goods involved in the complaints with 35 cases. Cosmetics with 32 cases, personal care products with 30, and jewellery, clothes, phones, and accessories with 28 cases each, bags and leather products with 14, motor & machinery with 11, eye glasses with 10 came next in that order. Other issues were associated with energy drinks, education services, lamps and electrical appliances, cleaning tools and powders, oils and greases, building materials, pharmaceuticals, cans and casings, tobacco and smoking accessories, inks, and electronic devices.
"Our effort is to contribute to firmly positioning Dubai as a sustainable city and a gateway for competitive business locally, and globally. We also seek to provide an attractive environment for local and foreign investments and enhance confidence among businesses as well as consumers," said Lootah.


text:
Kiwi biggest risk to govt forecasts for farm, forest exports 11 Jun 2012
- Australian central bank keeps easing bias in place Business
- NZ dollar gains as upbeat Asian data spurs US dollar selling Business
- RBNZ urged to abandon inflation targeting policy by NZIER Business
- Delegat forecasts record operating profit, case sales in '16 Business
- Auditor-General criticises EQC over quake complaint process Business
- Horticulture export act to be updated News
- Fonterra loses suit brought by former NZ Dairies suppliers Business
- When being told to p-off is good News
- RMA reform bill queue jumps over legislative backlog Business
- New phase begins for residential red zones News
NZ dollar is greatest risk to government forecasts for farm, forest export growth
June 11 (BusinessDesk) – The risk of the kiwi dollar remaining higher than expected over the next four years is the biggest risk to government forecasts for growth in the nation’s farm, forestry and seafood exports, a new government report says.
The trade-weighted index is forecast to fall 8.4 percent to 64.7 by March 2016, with weakness against the Australian dollar and yen offsetting gains versus the greenback, pound and euro, according to the Ministry for Primary Industries 2012 situation and outlook report. The TWI was recently at 70.43.
If the decline doesn’t eventuate, revenue from dairy, meat, wool and forestry could be 20 percent below the ministry’s baseline assumptions, the report says.
“In the shorter term, weak European and US economic performance, and lower interest rates relative to New Zealand drive the assumed strength of the New Zealand dollar,” the report says. “Longer term, New Zealand’s high and growing level of international indebtedness is expected to be constrained by limits to lenders’ appetite for risk, eventually reducing the strength of the New Zealand dollar.”
The ministry’s baseline forecast is for the TWI to strengthen over the next nine months to reach 72.2 by March 2013. It would gradually ease back to 64.7 by March 2016. The kiwi dollar would be around 80 US cents by March next year, up from its current level of 77.69 cents, before easing back to 69 cents by 2016.
Among the nation’s biggest primary exports, fruit is forecast to show the biggest gain in gross revenue between now and 2016, rising 33 percent to $3.1 billion. Dairy, the biggest contribution to the nation’s overseas shipments, is forecast to lift revenue by 27 percent to $12.5 billion.
Cattle revenue would rise 13 percent to $2.5 billion and sheepmeat by 9 percent to $2.45 billion. Wool is the disappointment, with gross revenue forecast to decline 16 percent to $513 million. Among other commodity items, revenue from vegetables would rise 10 percent to $1.1 billion.
The forecasts show agriculture’s contribution to gross domestic product would rise to $12.2 billion by 2016 from an estimated $9.78 billion in the year ended March 31.
For the current 12 months ending June 30, dairy export sales are expected to rise 5.6 percent to $13.9 billion as strong production more than makes up for weaker global commodity prices.
“More than any other New Zealand primary industry, the dairy industry has ben able to tap into strong economic growth in emerging market economies,” the ministry says.
Meat and wool export sales would rise 5.8 percent to $7.2 billion, reflecting higher meat volumes and increased wool prices.
New Zealand’s primary industries have benefitted from increased trade ties with emerging Asia, most notably China, where “investment and private consumption remained strong because of China’s solid corporate profits and rising household income,” the ministry says.
“The outlook for New Zealand’s dairy and forestry exports depends to a large extent on the Chinese economy maintaining its momentum,” it says.
That contrasts with the European Union, where there is a risk of further economic deterioration, and the US, where a weak housing market is weighing on demand for forest products. South East Asian countries and Latin America are expected to continue to have stronger growth, it said.
22 Nov 2015 News
New Zealand Government Rt Hon John Key Prime Minister 22 November 2015 PM welcomes closer partnership with ASEAN Prime ... more
20 Nov 2015 Business News
Nov. 20 (BusinessDesk) - Tower, the general insurer, says it will report an annual loss next week after raising its provisioning for... more
17 Nov 2015 Business News
Article - BusinessDesk NZ inflation expectations drift further below 2% mid-point Nov. 17 (BusinessDesk) - Longer term ... more
20 Nov 2015 Lifestyle
New Zealand’s recreation industry recognised 10 inspiring individuals and organisations at the New Zealand Recreation ... more
4 Nov 2015 Property
Auckland house price growth moderates in October as new rules introduced Nov. 4 (BusinessDesk) - Auckland house price growth... more
12 Oct 2015 Migration
Those looking for a sense of security when immigrating to New Zealand or Australia, need look no futher than the first inusrance... more
21 Sep 2015 Migration
NZ's annual net migration reaches record 60,300 in August on Indian, Chinese students By Jonathan Underhill Sept. 21... more
29 Oct 2015 Travel & Tourism
Internal Affairs says Australia's cloud passports only "conceptual" for now Oct. 29 (BusinessDesk) - The Department of... more
22 Oct 2015 Travel & Tourism
Auckland Airport a 'conductor' for New Zealand tourism, CEO Littlewood says Oct. 22 (BusinessDesk) - Auckland International... more
19 Nov 2015 Sport
New Zealand Rugby Union Richie McCaw retires from rugby Richie McCaw has today confirmed he is hanging up his boot... more
20 Nov 2015 Opinion
Gordon Campbell on why Islamic State’s growing weakness makes it more dangerous One of the great things about writing online... more
20 Nov 2015 Appointments
Article - BusinessDesk Cavalier promotes CFO Paul Alston to top job By Paul McBeth Nov. 20 (BusinessDesk) - Cavalier Corp, the... more
4 Nov 2015 Recruitment
Article - BusinessDesk UPDATE: NZ employment falls in third quarter, adding to case for further RBNZ rate cut (Recasts to... more

domain: news


text:
Paxful, a leading peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency exchange renowned for its high trading volume, has suspended its operations. The company’s founder and CEO, Ray Youssef, revealed the decision in a statement, citing regulatory hurdles in the industry and the exit of critical staff members as the primary reasons behind the suspension.
Official Announcement and the Future of Paxful
Youssef announced the official Paxful website, where he underscored the significance of protecting user security during this uncertain period. He urged customers to explore self-custody alternatives and seek other trading platforms while the company addresses these challenges.
Youssef’s statement read:
“This will probably come as a big shock to many. While I cannot share the full story now, I can say that we unfortunately have had some key staff departures. Also, regulatory challenges for the industry continue to grow, especially in the peer-to-peer market and most heavily in the U.S. While we work through these issues, we have taken the most secure option and ask you to explore self-custody and trade elsewhere.”
The CEO also informed customers that Paxful might not resume operations. However, he reassured users that all funds are secure and accounted for, with the Paxful Wallet remaining accessible for customers to withdraw their funds safely. Youssef recommended self-custody options such as Exodus Wallet and Muun Wallet to streamline the process.
Migration Options for Non-U.S. Users
Paxful has arranged effortless migration to alternative platforms for non-U.S. users, including Noones, a new P2P exchange operating in the Global South, and Bitnob, a platform providing easy access to Bitcoin for African users.
According to Youssef, Noones boasts lower trading fees, affordable wallets, a superior affiliate program compared to Paxful, and a streamlined Know Your Customer (KYC) process. The company’s dedication to user security and convenience during this challenging time is evident, as Youssef reiterated:
“The Paxful Wallet will be up for customers to retrieve their funds. Right now, safeguarding customer funds is my biggest priority.”
Increased Regulatory Scrutiny on the Crypto Industry
The recent suspension of Paxful’s marketplace has intensified regulatory scrutiny over the cryptocurrency industry, particularly in the United States. This development underscores the importance of self-custody for investors and the need for reliable and secure P2P cryptocurrency exchanges capable of navigating regulatory challenges while safeguarding customer funds.
In February, LocalBitcoins, a rival of Paxful and a veteran in the cryptocurrency exchange market with a decade of experience, announced its decision to cease operations.
The company cited market conditions as a significant factor in its decision to shut down.
In response, Youssef extended a message welcoming all users of LocalBitcoins to Paxful, before announcing the suspension of Paxful’s operations.
None of the information on this website is investment or financial advice. CryptoMode is not responsible for any financial losses sustained by acting on information provided on this website.


text:
The more-affluent folks moving to California don’t U-haul.
Record numbers of residents have been leaving California in recent years, but in 2020 the growth of remote work, the lure of cheaper housing and a summer of unprecedented wildfires has accelerated the trend. As a result, the moving business in San Francisco’s Bay Area is booming, but the surge has come with its own set of problems.
Moving trucks are hard to find, prices to get out of the Bay are being pushed sky-high, and the supply side of the market – with high starting costs and because movers are required to obtain state licenses – has been slow to respond.
The shortage has created openings for an underground moving economy complete with scammers who take advantage of desperate California escapees, left without easy options.
Moving companies across the Bay have said they were booked up months in advance through the summer. It continued through the autumn – in typical years, the industry sees a lull after kids start school. A spokesperson at Gentle Giant moving company says it performed three times the number of moves out of San Francisco in September 2020 than a year earlier.
Even at U-Haul stores – the rental truck retailer with the largest fleet across the US – trucks are in short supply. With so many trucks departing the Bay Area, the exodus has left an imbalance of returning vehicles. The shortage has sharply driven up truck prices for one-way trips out of town.
“Two households are moving out of California for every one moving in,” says Mark Perry, a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan who has been studying the US migration market over the past few years. “U-Haul is pricing it based on the imbalance they see and they now have a shortage of trucks in San Francisco.”
U-Haul changes truck prices regularly, but Perry has noted the pattern over time. Checking online recently, he noted that trucks going from Phoenix to San Francisco were only $311, but going the other direction it cost $2,500 – roughly eight times more. He checked cities in other top destinations for Californians, including Texas, Washington and Nevada, and found all outbound rates to be exponentially higher than inbound ones.
The high demand and high prices have created perfect market conditions for exploitation. Scammers are cashing in.
“There are hold-hostage cases where a mover will take possession of the belongings after agreeing to a price with the consumer, and then they will not give the belongings back unless the consumer pays well over and above what the agreed-to price was,” says Yeaphana La Marr, the acting chief of the California bureau of household goods and services, which regulates the moving industry. “Some just take the belongings and they are never seen again by the people who contracted for a move.”
The agency is also trying to crack down on new movers who are entering the booming market without licensing or insurance required by the state. Legitimate movers fill out an application, pass a test, undergo a background check and put up a $500 filing fee to obtain a license, and they have to prove they have the necessary resources and coverage to operate.
“Unlicensed activity is a major problem in the household moving industry and it creates a lot of consumer harm,” says La Marr. It is an accident-prone industry and customers could find themselves on the hook if they unknowingly hire a mover that doesn’t have liability insurance or workers’ compensation.
The underground moving economy is hard to track, but La Marr says the bureau does investigations based on tips from the public or other agencies, including local law enforcement. The bureau has seen a 74% surge in consumer complaints about movers since last year. “We don’t know whether Covid is a contributor or there are other factors, such as increased knowledge of the bureau,” she adds, explaining that her agency only assumed administration of moving industry regulations in 2018.
When an unauthorized mover is caught, the state will work with them to get licensed but some offenders are hit with citations, fines and, in some cases, jail time.
“For the more egregious violators, we would do a [district attorney] referral and that would be tried criminally,” La Marr says, adding that violators can be charged up to $10,000 per move. “The penalties are really high. So it is shocking how large the underground economy is.”
Unlicensed movers also make things more difficult for legitimate movers, who are now competing with low-balled offers from less experienced workers and more flexible timelines.
Read full article here:
There are guys who advertise as big moving companies but are acting as brokers. They quote you the lowest of everyone you called, so you book it – but on moving day they send out a third-party mover. Upon arrival, the company actually doing the move will claim the quote is too low, and they need another 50% or so. If you waited until the last day to move, what are you going to do?


text:
Everyone can remember the Wikipedia blackout earlier this year, bringing awareness of internet freedom to browsers all over the country. Wikipedia joined many other well known names on the internet like Google and Reddit to protest the SOPA and PIPA acts. While websites and online services that people use several times daily started taking a very visible stand in favor of internet liberties, it became hard to ignore the issue. With services like Wikipedia down, you start to realize how dependent you are the magical powers of the internet and just how precious your internet freedoms are. The freedom of the internet, or lack thereof, could drastically change the role of the digital marketing agency. With this budding feeling of personal investment, you begin to think that maybe you should take a stand on the issue as well.
The internet has thrived for so long largely because no governing bodies have intervened, but now members of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations organization, are pushing for more regulation. Many proposals are focused on more control and potential economic gains that can be a realized through this international regulation. The issue obviously gets more complicated than just the worrisome idea that Russia and China are looking for the United Nations to take control of the internet and steal all the control from unsuspecting citizens. No reason to freak out just yet, just an opportunity for the internet to further develop since these issues should be dealt with sooner or later. Some suggest that a dialogue between proponents of internet freedom and internet regulation advocates would give all parties an opportunity to voice their concerns. Some reform to the internet could be made, but it’s pretty unanimous that moving the internet towards a bureaucracy would do much more harm than good. For the digital marketing agency, internet freedoms would be best left alone to ensure an open line of communication between both the client and its audience.
The United Nations has declared that internet access is a human right, but this increased regulation is still up for international debate. It should be an interesting line of stories to follow because not all countries’ experience with the internet have been created equal. Countries with different levels of development and countries with different politics really will bring diverse opinions to the discussion.
I think as a person growing up in this digital age (especially in America), it’s hard not to see the value in internet freedom. In my opinion all the good that the internet can do easily trumps the scary feeling that political leaders must feel when the internet is used against them as one of many tools of freedom of speech. The internet has been an outlet for fun, health improvement, increased communication, and the source of new jobs. The digital marketing agency depends on an open and free internet to optimize its clients’ performance. I also have a soft spot for entrepreneurs and social justice advocates. The internet has given people pursuing these types of careers a way to mobilize their causes in a way that was no where near possible 20 years ago- heck even 5 years ago.
As always, there’s more than one side to every story. So, is internet access a human right or not?


text:
UniStructures has over 25 years of experience servicing the QSR market and initially developed and patented the first pivoting/self-returning canopy system for the drive-thru
to protect customers from the elements and to promote the specific brand image.
The Rhuddlan drive-thru
site has proved a success and we now hope to have Bangor open early next year, then we will move on to the next site which will most likely be one of the Anglesey sites.
Many South Floridians are familiar with the Farm Stores name and the convenience of a drive-thru
to pick up essentials like milk, bread, eggs and bananas.
You could be fined and given six points if you use Apple Pay at a drive-thru
The site represents an appropriate location for a drive-thru
restaurant which will be well placed to offer refreshments to passing customers and those in the surrounding area.
The development will allow a oneway vehicular access around the unit in order to enable orders to be taken and provided via a drive-thru
Harvey's opened its first drive-thru
in Rhuddlan in December 2014 and followed this with a unit in Bangor in March 2016.
Currently there are two other Costa Coffee drive-thru
stores on Teesside - in Middlehaven and Wolviston - while there are two branches in Stockton town centre.
Fencing has gone up at Leeds Road Retail Park in preparation for work on the new Burger King drive-thru
after Kirklees councillors approved the scheme earlier this year.
US firm Starbucks have opened Scotland's largest drive-thru
coffee shop in Hamilton.
Police in Waco, Texas, proved they take emergency calls seriously when they arrived at a McDonald's drive-thru
lane in response to a customer demanding free Chicken McNuggets.
The destination offers a full-line of CC's coffees, teas and pastries - and a drive-thru
Speed, accuracy and clarity are three main ingredients to ensure a great drive-thru
Technologies, Inc, a QSR drive-thru
industry leader for over 28 years, is proud to announce their new product, LIOTM -- the revolutionary drive-thru
listen in only audio system.
BIRMINGHAM is set to get another drive-thru
Starbucks with plans to develop one on derelict land due to be approved.


text:
By some estimates, nearly one in four Americans is out of work. A steady stream of bankruptcies has begun, both out loud and quietly, and many businesses have shuttered for good. The full extent of the damage wrought by the coronavirus recession will not become apparent until local economies begin to reopen. But there’s one part of the economy that appears to be going gangbusters: The U.S. stock market, at least as measured by its major indexes. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (which tracks shares of the nation’s 30 largest industrial companies) and the S&P 500 have rebounded, each
It was just a decade ago when people talked about the website Wikipedia as, let’s be blunt, a place for lies and nonsense. As Dunder Mifflin’s Michael Scott noted in “The Office,” “Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject. So, you know you are getting the best possible information.”
But, since then, the site has transformed. Today, Wikipedia is regularly the first place many of us check for information about everything. In fact, Wikipedia’s pages on COVID-19 and the pandemic are viewed more than a million times a day,
Click here to read the full article.
Long before the pandemic forced purveyors of high-end goods to start selling everything from yachts to real estate on digital platforms, Duxiana—the Swedish luxury mattress-maker—was already planning to offer its newest bed, the Dux One, online. And considering that it was built to adapt to the rigors of modern life, there’s probably no better place for it.
The bed, which is the first product the 90-year-old company has sold online, has been in the works for about two years. Part of that time was dedicated to working with California-based audio brand Stellé to
Augustinus Bader knows that what we need most right now is self-care. The celebrity-loved beauty brand has been providing us with new products, sales and even free hand sanitizer in just the past few months alone. Add to that list? A new hand cream sold exclusively at Violet Grey.
Introducing Augustinus Bader’s The Hand Treatment cream. Developed by Professor Augustinus Bader, one of the world’s leading experts in stem cell research, the luxuriously rich yet fast-absorbing cream was created to help hands maintain healthy moisture during this time of constant hand-washing and hand sanitizing
According to a press release, the
Doctors in London hospitals are using headsets from Microsoft to reduce the amount of staff coming into contact with COVID-19 patients
A small number of London hospitals have given out 10 mixed-reality headsets to doctors as a way to reduce the amount of hospital staff coming into contact with COVID-19 patients.
The headsets, called the HoloLens, are built by Microsoft and allow doctors to share their POV with colleagues remotely, while also showing holographic projections to the doctor wearing the headset.
Dr. James Kinross, one of the doctors using the headsets, told Business Insider this means instead of six or seven doctors conducting a ward round, just one can


text:
(Yicai Global) Aug. 7 -- Faraday Future (FF), an intelligent electric vehicle firm in which Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp. [SHE:300104] (LeTV) founder Jia Yueting is financially involved, said yesterday that it has rented a former tire factory covering an area of 1 million square feet (92,900 square meters) in Hanford, California, Sina reported today.
Faraday Future expects to start producing its flagship FF 91 model at the facility before the end of next year, a senior manager from the carmaker said.
"The opportunity to enter into the market is very important in our general strategy," said Stefan Krause, Faraday Future's chief financial officer and chief operating officer. "A company second only to Tesla Inc. [NASDAQ:TSLA] will be valuable, and that will be a good market position," he said. "In Bayerische Motoren Werke AG [FWB:BMW], we had always been second only to Mercedes-Benz, until our sales volume exceeded theirs early this year," said Krause, who used to be BMW's CFO.
Last month, Faraday Future said it would not move forward with plans to invest USD1 billion on building a factory in Nevada. Faraday Future attracted attention after its FF 91 appeared at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the firm announced intentions to set up shop in Nevada, but since then company has not advanced production of its products.
Analysts and observers in the automobile industry are skeptical of Jia, Faraday Future's primary backer. The Shanghai High People's Court froze USD183 million on deposit at the bank accounts of Jia Yueting, his wife and the Leshi group of companies on June 29 after he failed to repay loans. Jia stepped down as chairman of LeTV last month and does not hold a position at the company.


text:
J.P. Morgan says a big turnaround for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s business may be farther out than anticipated.
On Wednesday, analyst Gokul Hariharan predicts TSMC (ticker: TSM) will offer a mixed outlook when it reports earnings next month.
“We expect TSMC to turn more conservative on capex and the semi cycle,” he wrote. “We also expect initial comments on [first-half 2024] recovery to be muted, which could act as a trigger for [Wall Street estimates] consensus 2024E revenue growth to come down.”
In Thursday trading TSMC American depositary receipts rose by 1.3% to $86.51.
TSMC dominates the market for high-end chips. It makes the main processors inside Apple (AAPL) iPhones, Qualcomm (QCOM) mobile chipsets, and processors made by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). According to TrendForce, TSMC has 56% market share of the third-party chip-manufacturing business, followed by Samsung at 12%.
In July, TSMC lowered financial guidance for the year, forecasting a decline of 10% year over year in revenue. Management at the time said it saw a worse-than-expected deterioration in demand outside of the robust artificial-intelligence chip market and a weaker-than-expected recovery in China.
Hariharan expects TSMC’s business next year may disappoint as many of the large chip markets—including computers, smartphones and non-AI servers—still have too much inventory and soft demand trends.
There are “early indications that the semiconductor rebound is unlikely to be strong and quick,” he wrote. “In the near-term, we expect the stock to remain rangebound due to likely earnings-per-share cuts and a longer downcycle.”
On the other hand, the analyst is optimistic 2025 will be a “big year” for TSMC, as its customers launch new chips. He reaffirmed his Overweight rating for TSMC’s Taiwan-traded shares, and reiterated his price targe of 650 Taiwan dollars based on the company’s long-term technology leadership.
The target represents roughly 25% upside from current levels in TSMC’s ADRs.


text:
TheTourAttraction.com aims to provide the latest global travel and free travel news, travel and visa policies, and flight information. We hope to provide insights into tourism market, technology and development trends with everyone by providing the latest relevant information. Despite the raging COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, we always firmly believe that mankind will overcome the disease and the tourism market will definitely recover. TheTourAttraction.com look forward to your attention and support, and witness the development of the global tourism industry with us. Looking forward to the information TheTourAttraction.com provide can help you. We will continue to follow up and obtain the latest data, and look forward to your attention and support.
The following is the [Travel News]: China’s air passenger numbers down 45% year-on-year over Lunar New Year from [Reuters] recommended by TheTourAttraction.com:
Passenger numbers stood at 3.57 million over the 7-day holiday period.
China’s air passenger traffic fell 45.16% year-on-year over Lunar New Year, the aviation regulator said on Thursday, though signs of a quick recovery are emerging due to the country’s success in curbing domestic transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
Passenger numbers stood at 3.57 million over the 7-day holiday period, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in a statement on its website, adding that average load factor, a measure of seats filled, stood at 57.51%.
However, signs of a pick-up are emerging.
CAAC data showed the number of international cargo flights during the 7-day period surged 212.48% year-on-year.
Data from the brokerage Jefferies also showed domestic seat capacity, which during the week of February 8 plunged to the lowest level since February last year, is slated to increase 65.5% this week, compared with the previous week.
Though Chinese refrained from travelling over the holiday, they kept spending.
The sales of nine duty-free stores on the holiday resort island of Hainan exceeded 1.5 billion yuan (USD 232.27 million) during the 7-day holiday, doubling that of 2019 new year holiday before the coronavirus outbreak, the local government said on Thursday.


text:
A2 Milk chief executive David Bortolussi has outlined a new way forward for the company - one that will involve product innovation and slimmer margins.
It will also mean relatively lower levels of sales growth compared with the explosive rates seen in the immediate past.
In an investor day update, the milk and infant formula company said it was targeting sales revenue of $2 billion over the next five years or more, compared with $1.2 billion over the past financial year.
That implies a compound annual growth rate of 10 per cent a year over the next five years, compared with 30 to 60 per cent gains in revenue seen in the former high flier's recent past.
The company said its sales margins would probably be in the "teens" in the medium term - the market was expecting something in the early 20 per cent area.
Salt Funds managing director Matt Goodson said the margin forecast was disappointing "but obviously there is a fair bit of water to go under the bridge yet".
The slimmer margin forecast saw a2 Milk's share price drop by 85c or 12 per cent to $6.29, and compared with last year's peak of $21.51.
A2 Milk's net profit came to $80.6m, down 79.2 per cent from the previous year's profit.
The company's sales have been disrupted, particularly in the important unofficial daigou sales channel from Australia to China - it's biggest and most lucative market - because of Covid-19 and the rising popularity of China's domestic infant formula brands.
"The market landscape has experienced unprecedented change over the past 12 months, requiring us to adapt," Bortolussi said in material prepared for presentation at today's investor day.
"As a result, we have adapted our growth strategy to achieve the full potential of our business.
"Importantly, our brand is strong, we have a relatively small share in China infant milk formula and significant opportunity to capture."
Although the China infant formula market remained the largest and most attractive in the world, 2021 marked an inflection point where volume growth started to decline, Bortolussi said.
"We have had massive market disruptions over the past 12 months or so, which has required us to review our strategy," Bortolussi said.
"The biggest opportunities that we have is to capture the full potential of our China market - in English label and China label."
A2 Milk's English label product is more likely to be sold through the reseller "daigou" market or the cross border e-commerce channel, while China label product is more likely to arrive in the PRC via the normal export routes.
A2 Milk appears to have taken on board criticism in the market that it has relied on too few products for too long as Bortolussi said the company plans to ramp up its product innovation.
"There is enormous opportunity there," he said. We have been very successful with a very simple portfolio in the past but we have an opportunity to stretch our brand to innovate and grow the business."
Bortolussi told the Herald the company had accelerated its plan to take its loss-making US operation and Mataura Valley Milk on a path to profitability.
"We have been suitably bold with our ambition but not ridiculously optimistic," he said.
"We have a strong brand and a strong balance sheet to executive.
"Most of our competitors have multiple brands and products in the market.
"First of all we need to gain access to additional product registration [in China].
"That's the most challenging thing that we are going to work on, and then on product innovation to bring them to market."
Sales over the past quarter were an improvement on the heavily disrupted fourth quarter, but were still down on the same quarter a year earlier.
In China, infant formula companies were facing a declining birth rate and a market that was declining in volume and value for the first time in decades.
"The market has softened considerably and the company has seen an increased level of competition, and competitive intensity in terms of pricing and promotional activity has increased quite significantly," he said.


text:
Who colors the colorers?
Want more reason to hate everything? Look no further than Pantone's latest money-grabbing gambit, which will soon require users to pay a not-tiny monthly subscription fee to use its fancy colorways on Adobe products.
First spotted by designer Iain Anderson, users will have to pay $21 per month to get access to Pantone's encyclopedic color catalog — and that moreover, this move appears to be retroactive, and would remove any Pantone-trademarked color from any Adobe file you open starting in November, regardless of the age of one's software or the file itself.
Fun times ahead for #Adobe designers. Today, if you open a PSD (even one that's 20 years old) with an obscure PANTONE colour, it will remove the colour and make it black. Pantone want US$21/month for access, and Solid Coated goes behind the paywall in early November. pic.twitter.com/BUxzViYFaQ
— Iain Anderson (@funwithstuff) October 28, 2022
If you're confused, you're not alone. As Kotaku notes in its writeup of the change, the move comes after complex twists and turns, with Adobe announcing last year that it would be dropping Pantone colors.
Since then, nobody's really known what was up between two of the most important monoliths in the design world, with timelines of Adobe's promised "alternative solution" coming and going repeatedly before Anderson spotted the change this week.
"As we had shared in June, Pantone decided to change its business model," an Adobe spokesperson told us. "Some of the Pantone Color Books that are pre-loaded in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign were phased-out from future software updates in August 2022. To access the complete set of Pantone Color Books, Pantone now requires customers to purchase a premium license through Pantone Connect and install a plug-in using Adobe Exchange."
"We are currently looking at ways to lessen the impact on our customers," they added. "In the meantime, customers also have access to up to 14 extensive color books through Creative Cloud subscriptions."
Beyond the annoyance of the whole endeavor, it also opens up a whole philosophical can of worms, given that attempts to trademark colors are equal parts goofy, bizarre, and difficult.
"Owning colors is a terrible idea and technically, it's not possible to do so," copyright watchdog Cory Doctorow asserted on his blog. "Neither UPS Brown nor John Deere Green are 'owned' in any meaningful sense, but the companies certainly want you to believe that they are."
"The law is clear that colors aren't property," he added, but companies like Pantone are going to keep trying to say that they are — and keep charging people to use them — until everyone decides in tandem to turn their backs on these sorts of industry standard-bearers.
Updated with remarks from an Adobe spokesperson.
More design follies: Watch AI Generate Dozens of Fashion Designs in a Mesmerizing Video
Share This Article


text:
November 14, 2023
Federal Member for Flynn Colin Boyce has called on the Federal Government to investigate supermarket meat prices.
Mr Boyce said Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Agriculture Minister Murray Watt must urgently direct the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to hold a price inquiry.
“According to Meat and Livestock Australia, some sheep and lamb categories have fallen by up to 70 per cent in the saleyards in the last 12 months,” Mr Boyce said.
“Lamb prices have drastically reduced, and cattle prices have fallen by about 60 per cent. Yet families at the supermarkets have barely noticed a difference in prices.”
Mr Boyce said that while a farmer’s payment for cattle (Eastern Young Cattle Indicator index) had fallen from $10.21 per kilo to $3.65 per kilo over the past 12 months, at supermarkets it still cost about $36 a kilo for grass-fed rump steak, $25 a kilo for beef rump roast and $19 a kilo of grass-fed beef mince.
A farmer’s payment for lamb (National Trade Price index) had fallen from $8.39 per kilo to $4.82 per kilo, yet families were paying $27 for a kilo of grass-fed lamb boneless shoulder roast, $18 for a kilo of lamb loin chops and $8 a kilo for lamb leg roast.
Mr Boyce said a competition taskforce recently established by Labor to conduct a review of competition policy settings had failed to provide the urgent response that families and farmers required.
“This is impacting family budgets in Flynn right now. It needs an urgent response because families and farmers can’t afford to wait potentially two years for answers,” Mr Boyce said.
“Unlike a review, the ACCC would also have greater power to act.
“Many families are struggling to afford their grocery bill each week so it’s important the government acts swiftly to ensure there’s transparency in meat prices.”


text:
Entries in 'chart-track' (75)
Call of Duty: Black Ops has once again secured to the top spot of the GfK Chart-Track All Formats Charts.
Test Drive Unlimited 2 has more than doubled the week one sales of the original.
Dead Space 2 has topped the Chart-Track All Formats Top 40 games chart for the second week in a row.
Dead Space 2 has shot straight to the top of the UK All Formats Top 40 chart this week.
LittleBigPlanet 2 has topped the All Formats Top 40 charts this week following its release on Friday 21st January.
Call of Duty: Black Ops is the UK's biggest selling game of the year, according to Gfk Chart-Track.
FIFA 11 still reigns at the top of the All Formats Top 40, having dethroned Call of Duty: Black Ops last week.
Codemasters has cut short Halo’s stay at the summit of the All Formats Top 40, with F1 2010 racing to No.1.
The UK games market’s weekly value has fallen to its lowest point since May 2006, according to Gfk Chart-Track.
Mafia II has held on to the No.1 spot of the GfK Chart-Track All Formats chart for the third week in a row.
Mafia II has topped the ELSPA GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40 for the second consecutive week, despite a 23 per cent drop in sales.
There's a new UK No.1 in video games: Toy Story 3 has taken the top spot this week.
Woody, Buzz and Jessie's adventure rises from last week's No.5 to ...
Sales for video game software, hardware and accessories in the UK saw a decline of 16 per cent during the first half of 2010, it has been revealed today.
Microsoft has scored its first Gfk Chart-Track No.1 of the year with Crackdown 2.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 has fallen short of reaching Number One in the ELSPA GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40 by just 1,000 units.
Red Dead Redemption has retained its Number One position in the ELSPA GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40, despite the release of long-awaited Super Mario Galaxy 2 last Friday.
So who are the world's most bankable games studios?
UFC 2009: Undisputed has racked up its second consecutive No. 1, despite seeing sales slide 42 per cent.
UFC 2009: Undisputed is this weeks’ surprise No. 1, grappling the top spot from Nintendo’s ever-present Wii Fit.


text:
Wal-Mart starts selling 88-cent songs online
Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Retailing giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. officially entered the increasingly crowded online music market Tuesday with a service that offers songs for 11 cents less each than competitors like Apple Computer Inc.
Wal-Mart's online division, which is based in Brisbane, has been testing its Music Downloads store since December, selling tunes for 88 cents each or $8.88 per album. Wal-Mart said the test has been successful enough to formally start the service, at www.walmart.com, with an expanded selection of 300,000 songs and exclusive tracks from artists like Jessica Simpson, Black Eyed Peas and Tim McGraw.
But even though Wal-Mart is the big cheese in retailing, analyst Michael Goodman said the Bentonville, Ark., firm is only a small player in an emerging online music market dominated by Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store.
"Right now, this is going to be more of a ripple than a tidal wave," said Goodman, senior media and entertainment analyst for Yankee Group, a Boston research firm.
The online store has 300,000 tracks for sale, about 100,000 more than were available during the test period. In addition, Walmart.com will have about 3,000 songs exclusively for the next two months from Curb Records, which has a catalog of country artists like McGraw, LeAnn Rimes and Jo Dee Messina. Wal-Mart will also have exclusive tunes from finalists in Oprah Winfrey's "Pop Star Challenge."
The profit margins on downloadable songs are small. For example, Cupertino's Apple uses iTunes to draw customers to more profit-generating products like the iPod digital audio player.
But Lin said Wal-Mart isn't using music as a loss-leader to draw customers to its Web site. "We see it absolutely as a viable, profitable business model, one with huge growth potential," she said.
Like the retail outlets, the online store will adhere to Wal-Mart's policy of not selling songs that carry parental advisory labels and instead offer the clean radio-play versions, Lin said.
Wal-Mart has become one of the record industry's biggest CD retailers. But in the online world, it is going up against the iTunes Music Store, which has about 70 percent of the market, Goodman said.
Wal-Mart isn't making Music Downloads available for users of computers that run on Linux or Apple's Macintosh operating system. By trying to attract users of computers running on Microsoft's Windows operating system, Wal-Mart will be competing against services like Napster 2.0, Musicmatch Downloads, Rhapsody and the Windows version of iTunes. Microsoft has said it plans to start an online music store during the second half of 2004.
Wal-Mart's 88-cents-per song price won't be enough of an advantage, because surveys show customers "don't see a big difference between 99 cents and 88 cents," analyst Goodman said.
"For Wal-Mart, this is more of a defensive move," he said. "We're in a transition period. Slowly but surely, music is going to be increasingly digitally distributed, and you're either in the game or not in the game. (For Wal-Mart), being out of the game is not really an option."


text:
Founder and CEO of the tech business, Sutton says the rollout of new order and pay technology in a bid to minimise points of contact between guests and customers when pubs reopen, provides an opportunity for pub staff to focus on hosting, service and effectively “add hours back onto a shift”.
“In these times of unusual circumstance, you always see a great push forward with technology,” he adds.
However, Sutton explains while the advent of new apps and technology since pubs closed on 20 March has been rapid, the fact publicans preparing to reopen their sites don’t necessarily have the time and resources to expand their digital knowledge – and ask the right questions – at the same pace is a concern.
“That's my biggest fear,” he tells The Morning Advertiser (MA), “the digitisation of these businesses and people not necessarily knowing what they don't know.”
Challenge new tech partners
Further reading on GDPR and pubs
- How pubs can stay on top of GDPR - Implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on 25 May will affect all organisations from head office level down to individual premises.
- GDPR guide: are you ready for the new data protection rules? - All businesses must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the deadline is looming. Do you know what you need to do?
- GDPR has been seen as evolution - One year on from the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and no doubt you remember the seemingly endless number of emails filling up inboxes last year.
- GDPR is coming: data protection regulations - New data protection rules are looming with the threat of eye-watering fines for breaching the privacy of individuals. Pubs have much to do ahead of the General Data Protection Regulation coming into force in May.
Sutton explains seeking experienced partners with strong credentials can help operators new to digital services navigate what measures such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - the legal framework for the collection and processing of personal information - could potentially become a digital minefield.
“If someone is proffering a digital solution ask them about safeguarding, ask them about what measures are in place,” he says. “What accreditation do they have? Who are their partners? Who is actually accepting the payments, who is the acquiring bank? All these sorts of things.
“You want to make sure you're dealing with experienced players in the space and it isn't just somebody whose knocked up a website because they've seen the opportunity and have suddenly come up with something to service a clear need.
“There's so much that's sprung up since the pandemic hit, so many solutions – I'll probably see dozens every day and you just think anybody using that could be in for a real nasty shock at some point.
“It's just sad because you think a lot of businesses have probably gone for them because of price – but if anything they're inviting a whole host of other problems that they probably don't realise exist just to compound the struggles that have been created by the pandemic.”
Managing customer data
Sutton adds that probably the most important thing in transitioning from an offline business to more digital solutions is appreciating the responsibility that comes with handling swathes of sensitive customer data.
“I think there's a huge amount that people need to be aware of GDPR and data protection in general, the safeguarding of data, especially when you're talking about your customer's payment data,” he says.
“This isn't a case of simply accepting credit cards through people's phones or whatever - there are a lot of people out there who maybe don't have the experience of this and don't understand the responsibilities and the safeguarding that needs to be put in place.”
Again, Sutton states that this can be tackled by quizzing new tech partners on their approach and examining their accreditation and GDPR credentials.
“There can be a tendency for people to look at something, especially if they don't have an in depth understanding of it and just think 'what's cheapest’,” Sutton says.
“Short sightedness is going to come back to haunt some people because what we are talking about here is businesses becoming very digital and the amount of data flowing through these businesses presents a huge risk if that data isn't being looked after and the right measures aren't being put in place.”


text:
The claim: Photos show electric cars discarded in a garbage dump after batteries failed
An old claim about a field full of abandoned electric cars has found life yet again on social media.
“This is a garbage dump near Paris, France with hundreds of electrically powered cars,” read a December 25, 2021, Facebook post. “They all have the same problem,… the battery storage cells have gone and need to be replaced.”
The post garnered nearly 400 shares in 9 days. Another identical version of the post was shared another 250 times in a week.
However, the post is wrong.
While the photos do show electric cars in France, they are not at a garbage dump, nor were they placed at the location due to failed batteries. The cars were moved to the lot after a French rideshare service failed, according to multiple French news reports.
Special access for subscribers! Click here to sign up for our fact-check text chat
Slightly different versions of the claim have circulated on social media throughout the last year and have been debunked by Politifact, Reuters, AFP and Lead Stories. In many of the past versions, the lot in the photos is referred to as a “boneyard” instead of a “garbage dump.”
USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook users who shared the claim for comment.
Photo shows stored EVs from failed rideshare service, not garbage dump
The photos show electric cars parked on a lot in Romorantin-Lanthenay, France, located roughly 125 miles south of Paris.
The vehicles were originally utilized by a French subscription rideshare service, according to a French news report. The Bolloré group operated the service until Parisian authorities canceled its contract in 2018 due to financial issues, according to Reuters.
After the contract was canceled, the Bolloré group sold some of its inventory to a company called Atis Production, which stored the cars on the lot shown in the photos, according to a French news report. The report described the lot as being located in an industrial area and made no mention of it being a garbage dump. The pictures show a field full of cars with no additional garbage accumulation.
“None of these cars found itself there because there was a generalized technology problem,” Fabricio Protti, Deputy CEO of Bolloré, told AFP.
Bolloré group did not respond to USA TODAY’s requests for comment. Atis Production could not be reached.
Fact check: Photo shows privately constructed EV charger in Australia, botches math on efficiency
USA TODAY has debunked other inaccurate claims related to electric car battery life.
One previous claim also involved a photo of tightly clustered parked cars said to be an “electric car cemetery in France,” populated by vehicles allegedly discarded after battery failure. In fact, the picture showed Chinese vehicles retired after a rideshare company upgraded to new models.
In another instance, social media users claimed electric cars caused an enormous traffic jam during a California snowstorm after hours of idling drained their batteries. Traffic delays associated with the storm actually occurred when a “mass exodus” of vehicles overwhelmed a freshly reopened highway system.
Our rating: False
Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that photos show electric cars discarded in a garbage dump after batteries failed. The photo shows a lot where cars from a failed rideshare service were stored by a private company.
Our fact-check sources:
PolitiFact, May 17, 2021, No, electric cars weren’t abandoned because batteries too costly to replace
Reuters, May 19, 2021, Fact Check-Electric cars taken off French roads due to contract termination, not battery fault
Reuters, June 21, 2018, Paris ends Autolib electric car sharing contract with Bollore
USA TODAY, July 14, 2021, Fact check: Viral image of an electric car ‘cemetery’ shows vehicles from a ride-share company in China
franceinfo, April 5, 2021, What will become of the cumbersome Autolib ‘piled up in the “cemetery” of Romorantin?
actuParis, Mar. 9, 2021, Three years after the end of Autolib in Paris, a thousand electric cars are waiting for a second life
BFMBuisness, Aug. 31, 2018, After leaving Paris, the Autolib ‘found in the loir-et-cher
AFP, May 19, 2021, Electric cars in France were not discarded due to faulty technology
Lead Stories, May 18, 2021, Fact Check: Electric Cars In Storage Lot Were NOT Abandoned Due To Battery Problems
Eltis, June 28, 2018, Plug pulled on Paris’ shared electric car service Autolib
La Nouvelle Republique, July 20, 2018, Autolib ‘at the end of their life fail in Romorantin
USA TODAY, Jan. 5, Fact check: Traffic jam caused by ‘mass exodus’ after highway reopened, not electric cars
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.
Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Electric vehicles stored when rideshare service failed


text:
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. posted net income of $54.4 million in third quarter despite falling prices, decreased sales, and a restructuring charge of $55.5 million related to businesses serving the energy industry.
End market demand was relatively steady in third quarter, except in the energy market where shipments dropped approximately 40 percent year over year. The automotive and aerospace industries remained strong sectors for Reliance, boosting aluminum sales for the company. Agriculture equipment weakened and nonresidential construction, while improving, remained well below peak levels.
Reliance sales for the quarter were $2.29 billion, down 5.7 percent sequentially and down 15.5 percent year over year. Total tons sold decreased 1.5 percent from second quarter to 1.486 million tons with average selling price down 4.4 percent to $1,519 per ton.
Reliance sold 1.216 million tons of carbon steel in third quarter, down from 1.231 million tons in second quarter. Average selling price for steel dropped 4.5 percent sequentially and 14.6 percent year over year.
In its outlook comments, Reliance expects weakening conditions in fourth quarter. A slow growing economy, seasonal patterns and uncertainty in the market is likely to result in a 4-5 percent decrease in tons sold as compared to third quarter. Metals pricing is expected to remain under pressure throughout the remainder of 2015. Average selling price is expected to drop 1-2 percent from Q3. Reliance expects the energy industry to remain under pressure throughout 2015 and into 2016.
During the earnings call, CEO Gregg Mollins said that reduced sales were due to low prices. “Demand is not the issue, the issue was pricing.” He commented that at the annual managers meeting “there wasn’t a lot of sniveling about demand, other than the guys in the energy business.”
CFO Karla Lewis noted that, “If it weren’t for imports, pricing would be higher. Demand is high enough to support pricing, absent the imports we’ve seen.”
Mollins said he is expecting more plant closures in the industry during this year’s fourth quarter. “Hopefully we are wrong,” he said, “but you know how we are: prepare for the worse and pray for the best.”
Sandy WilliamsRead more from Sandy Williams
Latest in Steel Mills
USW remains skeptical of USS acquisition despite Nippon’s promises
The United Steelworkers union expressed a lack of trust in assurances from Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. (NSC) regarding its proposed buy of U.S. Steel.
Biden admin scrutinizing Nippon Steel’s Chinese ops in USS deal: Report
Nippon Steel Corp.’s (NSC) operations in China are a potential security concern of the Biden administration, according to a Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources close to the matter.
Kestenbaum looking at multiple ways to grow Stelco
Alan Kestenbaum, the CEO of Stelco, said the company is actively evaluating ways to grow the company, including both organic and inorganic opportunities.
Nucor board OKs new rebar micro mill for Pacific Northwest
Nucor Corp. announced plans to build a new rebar micro mill in the Pacific Northwest.
BlueScope officially mulling addition of CR and coating capacity in US
Australia's BlueScope Steel has begun making plans to potentially add cold rolling and coating capabilities in the US.


text:
Is Yahoo, Tumblr deal the blind leading the blind in mobile advertising?
It is no secret that Yahoo needs some mobile mojo. While yesterday?s $1.1 billion deal for Tumblr comes with a good-ized audience of smartphone and tablet users, the microblogging site?s mobile advertising know-how may be just as thin as Yahoo?s.
Tumblr is significantly smaller than Yahoo but it is quickly growing, especially among the young, mobile users that are attractive to advertisers while Yahoo?s has itself admitted that its own aging audience is an issue. It is Tumblr?s audience that is one of Yahoo?s reasons for wanting Tumblr.
?Tumblr is a site and a platform that has stood the test of time over the last few years as it gets more popular and more usage with a young, vibrant audience,? said Roger Katz, CEO of Friend2Friend, Palo Alto, CA.
?I think they are looking to the magic that Tumblr can help bring to the table ? a younger audience, high mobile engagement and a great mobile app that they just refreshed again today,? he said.
?Just like the overall trends with mobile and social platforms, very soon ? if not now ? the majority of the consumption of these posts will take place on mobile, and Tumblr has a quite capable and in some ways cutting-edge UI for their native mobile apps, both Android and iOS. So they are well set up there.?
Mobile social convergence
Increasingly, online companies recognize the need to have a strong presence in both mobile and social, as evident with Facebook, Twitter and Google.
The Tumblr acquisition is Yahoo?s first big mobile-focused deal after having made a series of smaller acquisitions in the space.
?Yahoo needs to have a seat at the table in order to compete in a world that has become increasingly social and mobile,? said Kamal Kaur, vice president of mobile at RadiumOne, San Francisco.
?Tumblr is just as much of a mobile property as it is a display property,? she said.
?Tumblr's ability to help Yahoo ramp up its mobile story could generate enormous growth for shareholders in an increasingly mobile world. Include the first party data it can transport onto mobile, and you have a great story to sell to brands.?
The right audience
In the United States, Yahoo?s sites collectively have an audience of approximately 191 million while Tumblr has about 29 million unique users.
However, Yahoo has an older audience that is not very engaged with social media or mobile.
Tumblr?s audience is very young, with 45 percent of visitors under the age of 35, according to a recent report from Compete.com.
The microblogging site?s mobile numbers are also attractive. Tumblr?s mobile audience is around 12 million, up from four million a year earlier.
Yahoo?s mobile audience is bigger, but growing more slowly, with 84 million mobile users, up from 63 million a year ago.
?Tumblr is close to Twitter in terms of average monthly unique users and potentially more inclusive in terms of the usage for posting, reading and interacting,? Friend2Friend?s Mr. Katz said.
?It is designed in a way that allows more degree of freedom for user engagement and interaction ? it is a lot more picture based and a lot more video friendly. It is very well suited to entertainment properties and fashion,? he said.
?They are not as strong as Twitter on the strictly mobile side of things.?
Tumblr offers a wide, if somewhat eclectic array of content against which ads could be run.
The site features over 108 million blogs in its network, with the most popular ones dedicated to the game Minecraft, a Portuguese site featuring reaction GIFs and a blog from the linguist who created the languages in ?Game of Thrones.?
Tumblr launched mobile ads in April, with ads from brands such as GE, Warner Bros. and ABC among the first to appear in the app experiences for iOS and Android users. The ads appear as part of a user?s content stream.
The mobile monetization strategy followed last year?s launch of a broader advertising program.
Yahoo introduced mobile-only ads earlier in the spring and they also appear within the content stream of its native mobile app.
?Tumblr has an earned media model for Brands,? RadiumOne?s Ms. Kaur said. ?Brands want more followers and more people to see their content.
?Similar to Facebook Ads driving Likes and Sponsored Posts, if Yahoo were to inject Tumblr into native ads across mobile and display, they can essentially allow brands to pay more money for distribution across its owned assets,? she said.
A fresh appeal
One of the challenges Yahoo will have is merging the two cultures, which are very different, with Yahoo the older, more established company and Tumblr still a fast-moving, up-and-comer.
Already, Yahoo executives have been careful to emphasize that they will be allowing Tumblr to operate independently.
?Yahoo doesn?t want to tarnish the Tumblr brand, which is quite fresh and not overrun with ads. So they are going to need to approach things cautiously,? Friend2Friend?s Mr. Katz said.
?What is going to help Yahoo in this space is getting in on a platform that is hot, that is populated with active users,? he said. ?I think this type of format and interaction really is the Internet going forward ? it is not the old Yahoo page and properties that you land on.
?In some regards, the CEO of Yahoo is using this as a model to rally Yahoo behind and look at how to retool their presence and their offerings.?
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York


text:
A NEW Zealand IT company is hoping its product will become the industry standard platform globally for internet and telco service providers.
EMS-Cortex (formerly EMS-Global) executives travelled to Germany last week to demonstrate the Cortex platform to an estimated 90,000 visitors at the CeBit trade show.
Paul van Tol, EMS-Cortex chief financial officer, says the new identity aligns the company with its core product and strengthens its branding as it heads to new international markets.
Cortex combines Microsoft and non-Microsoft services to provision, secure and report on a range of hosted services and is designed to be used by telcos, service providers and SMEs.
Much of 2004 was spent on turning Cortex from a tool kit sold with professional services to a standard platform ready to take to the global market.
Last June the company signed a contract with Singapore-based iASPire.net and subsequently entered the European market with Enertel, a Dutch telco that has used Cortex to provide a managed services platform for its business customers and ISP resellers.
Van Tol describes Cortex as a comprehensive, flexible and secure platform that has a number of features that sets it apart from similar products.
He says the low implementation cost makes it affordable for all businesses, from small enterprises through to large telcos.
Already in use by Telecom NZ and Bri-tish Telecom, van Tol believes the product has what it takes to become the platform of choice for services providers across Europe, Asia and Australasia.


text:
Unilever, Nestle to Remove GMO Ingredients from British Product Lines.
Consumer products group Unilever said two of its UK subsidiaries, will remove GMOs from their products. A Unilever spokesperson said that 5 percent of Birds Eye Walls and Van den Bergh's combined product range currently contain GMO ingredients. The switch to non-GMO ingredients is expected to take two months.
Nestle UK also said it had already removed from the majority of its product ingredients that might have contained GMO material, and that it would continue the process. A spokesperson said the policy applied only to Nestle UK, not to the whole of the Swiss-based group.
Also, Britain's largest supermarket chain, Tesco Plc, last week vowed to remove GMOs from food products wherever possible and tighten labeling. One in four customers wanted GMO-based foods removed from the shelves, Tesco said in a statement, so it was removing GMOs wherever it could.
Consumer worries about GMO crops and foods have pushed most major British supermarkets to pledge either to stop selling GMO products or at the very least clearly label them. Some scientists fear GMO crops could threaten biodiversity and even inflict genetic damage on animals and humans. But others believe the dangers are exaggerated, saying the possible benefits of pest-resistant plants that are cheaper, more nutritious and have higher crop yields outweigh any drawbacks. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair refused to bow to pressure and ban testing of GMO crops. Asked if he would consider a moratorium on the planting of such crops for research, Blair said he fully understood public concerns about GMO foods but said there was no evidence to suggest they could harm human health.
Up to 50 percent of the 1999 U.S. soybean crop is genetically modified, but GMO varieties are not separated from unaltered beans along the supply chain. Most of the soybean and soy derivatives used in Europe come from the United States.
|Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback|
|Comment:||Unilever, Nestle to Remove GMO Ingredients from British Product Lines.|
|Publication:||Food & Drink Weekly|
|Date:||May 3, 1999|
|Previous Article:||Canadian Government Establishes Office of Natural Health Products.|
|Next Article:||Sara Lee Hires USDA Food Safety Expert for Bil Mar Meat Plant.|


text:
Dakka-dakka boom and all those noises. Team-based shooter Insurgency is back, Back, BACK! And the latest released is poised at the potential-filled moment of early-access via pre-orders. You might recall that the first version of this game was a Half-Life 2 mod that was ModDB's mod of the year back in 2007, but it's now a full commercial project, complete with four game modes, class-based happenings, and fancy 3D VOIP. It's sort of reassuring to see these kinds of projects finding a long-term home, especially when small teams dedicate such huge amounts of time to them. Whether it will be a success? Well, that's one news we'll have to wait for.
If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.
More On Insurgency


text:
The New Silk Road is still growing, despite a slowdown due to the war in Ukraine. There are strong trends regarding new commodities and traffic between China and Russia is on the rise. However, European companies that were once considered Silk Road pioneers are staying away, leaving Chinese logistics companies wonder how they can het them back on Eurasian trains.
The development of the volumes on the New Silk Road was the theme of the RailFreight webinar ‘The New Silk Road is alive’. Speakers Jet Young (Nurminen Logistics) and Jakub Walczak CH Robinson) illustrated quite an optimistic picture regarding the corridor’s growth. “The growth is not as significant as last year, but it’s there”, said Walczak, who also mentioned that the market should prepare for a spike in demand for Silk Road services in the coming years, just like what happened in 2020.
The growth on the New Silk Road is hard to measure, it there is no consensus on what should be taken into account. While some count the volumes on the main route via Poland/Belarus, others include all corridors. While some measure the volumes between Europe and China alone, others also include traffic between China and Russia.
If you look at the volumes between Europe and China, we should expect a 30 per cent decrease this year, taking into account traffic via the main route via Brest/Malaszewicze, acknowledged Young. This is still the main transit corridor for China-Europe trains. However, for China these declining rail volumes are compensated with China-Russia traffic, which follows a sharp upwards trajectory. Taking into account these figures, the volumes via the main route have increased, although the fugures for the first 9 months of this year are not yet available.
Russian route the bulk of volumes
Apart from this nuance, there is also a clear difference in east- and westbound traffic. Despite big transport and forwarding companies stopping transit via Russia for compliance and ethical reasons, we cannot but notice that the bulk of China-Europe volumes, including New Energy Vehicles and e-commerce, still transit via Russia and, respectively, via Brest/Malaszewicze to Europe, explained Jet Young. Additionally, small and medium-sized companies from Central and Eastern Europe still show a preference for Russian transit options.
In the meantime, large European manufacturers that were once solid New Silk Road customers are staying away from China-Europe rail. They vowed not to use transport solutions that transit through Russia, and as the Middle Corridor via the Caspian Sea is much less attractive in terms of costs and transit time, they now resort to sea shipping, with little sign of returning to rail.
What does Europe need?
Young expressed the Chinese frustration about the European views on the Silk Road. “I had a trip in Europe and talked with many companies who expressed their concerns,” he highlighted. “We still see EU companies refusing the Russian route, with customers mentioning insurance and cargo safety concerns. However, we see that the route runs smoothly with no issues in terms of safety and security. We really need to understand what is the actual concern of European companies”, he concluded.
Answering this question could prove quite complicated. As a result, better communication between Europan and Chinese companies is invaluable in these times. Both Walczak and Young said that the decline in Europe-China volumes should not discourage the market. “We see more preference for LCL than FCL shipments”, said Walczak, quoting the global inflation rates, which also impact the global demand for shipments and trade, not only for rail but other transport modes.
Talking about the more positive trends, Young emphasised that New Energy Vehicles on rail are here to stay. He underlined that their export demand via rail was there for months, and that is why the Chinese government decided to release their transport by trains. The presence of cars on rail could also signal the transport of more dangerous goods on Eurasian tracks, said Walczak, who also mentioned that such developments would occur gradually.
On the other hand, Walczak stressed that the relatively lower volumes and traffic on the Brest/Malaszewicze axis could be a good opportunity for the future. In the context of a possible demand spike in the coming years, Walczak said that it would be wise to undertake modernisation and expansion investments in Malaszewicze to cope with future demand. This relatively quiet period is ideal for such investments despite the lack of EU financial backing.


text:
Jeep has unloaded the principal units of the new Merdian from its Ranjangaon plant alongside the SUV to arrive at showrooms by mid-May.
Jeep has begun neighborhood creation of the new Meridian SUV with the underlying appointments formally open. A few vendors have begun tolerating appointments for the forthcoming three-line Jeep SUV with an initial investment of Rs.50,000. The authority it is additionally fixed on something very similar to book sum.
Jeep says that the Meridian Display and test drive vehicles will begin showing up at showrooms by mid-May and conveyances to clients will start in June. The costs of the SUV are likewise expected to be reported one month from now.
Talking on the beginning of creation of Jeep Meridian, Roland Bouchara, CEO and MD, Stelantis India said, “Jeep Meridian is the third new model of Jeep to be delivered in India after 2021. The Jeep Meridian will be worked from up to 82% limited parts and has been extraordinarily planned, designed and tuned for the Indian street conditions, remembering the client assumptions in this portion.”
The Meridian will be accessible in two variations – Endlessly restricted (O) – however not at all like the Compass with which it shares its foundation, it will be a diesel-just SUV. Fueled by a 2.0-liter Multijet diesel motor that produces 168 Bhp and 350 Nm of force, the SUV will accompany 6-speed manual and 9-speed force converter programmed gearbox choices.
Front-wheel drive is standard with both the gearboxes, while four-wheel drive is additionally accessible with the programmed. Peruse how Meridian acts in our audit.
Jeep Meridian 3-Row SUV Interiors
Discussing the insides, the Meridian will accompany 10.1-inch touchscreen, a 10.2-inch computerized instrument bunch, associated vehicle tech with an installed SIM, an all encompassing sunroof, remote cell phone network, remote telephone charging, controlled front seats with ventilation . For security, six airbags, a 360-degree camera and tire pressure checking framework have been remembered for the SUV.
The Meridian is supposed to be evaluated over the Compass line-up and could be in a similar reach as the Toyota Fortuner and MG Gloster. After the send off of Meridian, Jeep’s next new SUV for India will be the all-new Grand Cherokee which is set to be sent off not long from now.


text:
ESR is stepping up its presence in India with the purchase of a development site in the north of the country, as the logistics specialist looks to ride the rising demand for warehousing in the subcontinent.
The Warburg Pincus-backed company is planning to develop a 300,000 square metre (3.2 million square foot) logistics park on the site in Haryana state, which will make the facility one of the largest in northern India.
Growing a $500M Logistics Platform
The new property, once it reaches completion, will bring ESR’s portfolio in the country to 14 properties, with the hybrid developer-fund manager now having grown its assets under management in India to approximately $500 million since establishing its first major joint venture in the country in November 2018.
“ESR India is committed to building institutional grade logistics infrastructure to facilitate the development and modernisation of the nation’s supply chain,” Abhijit Malkani and Jai Mirpuri, Country Heads of ESR India, said in a joint statement.
Located in the city of Sohna, 55 kilometres south of Indira Gandhi International Airport, the proposed high-spec park will support last-mile delivery for the business hubs of New Delhi, Gurugram and Faridabad, according to the company, which plans to being construction on the project in May.
Read more… https://www.mingtiandi.com/real-estate/logistics/esr-buys-site-for-300000-sqm-northern-india-logistics-park/


text:
Clif launches flavor line extension for Clif Kid Zbar
EMERYVILLE, Calif. — Clif on Tuesday announced a flavor line extension — iced oatmeal cookie — for its Clif Kid Zbar brand.
“In a recent nationwide survey, Clif Kid learned that 75% of parents believe it’s actually harder to feed their kids healthy snacks than healthy meals,” stated Jennifer Yun, brand director for Clif Kid. “As parents, we know it’s helpful to keep healthier lunchbox snacks interesting.”
Like all Zbars, iced oatmeal cookie is certified organic and provides an excellent source of complex carbohydrates combined with protein and fiber to help curb hunger and stabilize energy levels.
The full Zbar product line carries a suggested retail price of 89 cents per bar.
H5N1 researchers volunteer to suspend testing for 60 days
WASHINGTON — Avian flu researchers have agreed to take a 60-day hiatus on testing an H5N1 influenza strain that recently had gained public attention, according to a letter published Friday in the journal Science.
The virus in question is being studied at both the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and possesses a haemagglutinin protein from highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza viruses that can become transmissible in ferrets. "This is critical information that advances our understanding of influenza transmission," the letter read. "However, more research is needed to determine how influenza viruses in nature become human pandemic threats so that they can be contained before they acquire the ability to transmit from human to human, or so that appropriate countermeasures can be deployed if adaptation to humans occurs. … We would like to assure the public that these experiments have been conducted with appropriate regulatory oversight in secure containment facilities by highly trained and responsible personnel to minimize any risk of accidental release."
The researchers are implementing the delay in research in an effort to give scientists from all nations an opportunity to prepare for an international debate among the scientific community. "We realize that organizations and governments around the world need time to find the best solutions for opportunities and challenges that stem from the [H5N1 research]. To provide time for these discussions, we have agreed on a voluntary pause of 60 days on any research involving highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses leading to the generation of viruses that are more transmissible in mammals."
Wellesse introduces ‘New Year New Healthy You’ online sweepstakes
FERNDALE, Wash. — Wellesse on Friday announced the launch of the "New Year New Healthy You" sweepstakes, featuring a grand prize worth $3,000 that includes a year’s supply of all Wellesse liquid supplements and choice of a treadmill, elliptical or exercise membership.
"This new online sweepstakes campaign is a part of our commitment to our consumers to be a resource for both nutritional supplements and health and wellness information they are looking for to support a healthy lifestyle," stated Leslie Ellis, online marketing manager. Consumers may enter for a chance to win one of four ways plus earn extra entries by sharing on Facebook, retweeting messages on Twitter and commenting on the Vital to Health and Wellness blog.
Wellesse also is contributing up to $1,000 to the Obesity Action Coalition for each new follower as part of the "New Year New Healthy You" promotion.


text:
CMO Interview: A story of digital reinvention at Simplot
- 23 June, 2015 12:15
In the last five years, Simplot CMO and chief digital officer, Fiona Allen, has made a concerted effort to become a digital transformation leader.
“The world is changing at such a rapid pace, if you don’t reinvent yourself now as a marketer, you will soon become irrelevant, much like those businesses that haven’t changed,” she told CMO. “You won’t be able to get the jobs.
“Five years ago, anyone in my kind of role realised you had to start reinventing yourself, take on digital knowledge and learn about this. Marketers coming through now have been born in this age and just get it, and as we know, this is the future. I made a concerted effort to shift focus to roles where I could build these capabilities, but also leverage all these skills together.”
But digital isn’t just about marketing strategy, it’s also about business transformation and leveraging opportunities coming through via digital, Allen said.
“We can not only use those opportunities to meet consumer expectations, but also to solve business challenges and find value,” she said.
Leading digital change
It’s this quest for digital reinvention that led Allen to Australian food manufacturer, Simplot. The privately-owned company owns an array of proprietary food brands including Leggos, John West, Bird’s Eye and Edgell, as well as a B2B business servicing pubs, cafes and food outlets across the country.
Allen built her career in marketing and product roles across B2C, B2B and business-to-government. But it was when she became head of brand and advertising at GE Capital that she had the first opportunity to lead transformation – in this instance, around the brand. At Medibank, she rose to executive GM for marketing, digital and product and was again asked to lead significant change.
Allen was approached for the joint CMO/CDO role at Simplot last October. Having struggled to find the digital leadership skills within the FMCG space, the company was looking to recruit someone from the services sector.
The need for business transformation was evident, she said. As well as the widespread depression in manufacturing across Australia, Simplot’s proprietary brands have been under significant pressure for some time thanks to the competitive retail environment. In addition, in the B2B sector, distribution monopolies have chipped away at value and price points.
2014 financial results published by the Australian Financial Review in February showed Simplot’s annual sales grew just over 4 per cent to $1.24bn, yet bottom-line profits were 26 per cent lower year-on-year, with net profit down to $33.8m, compared to $45.9m the previous year.
“At the same time, food manufacturing has been under lots of pressure as a result of a huge range of issues - from the high Australian dollar to the low inflation rate and challenges to unionised labour, to role of retailer and distributor,” Allen explained. “All have put downward pressure on margins. Trying to create a differentiation point for those proprietary brands that props up and unlocks the value proposition is the challenge.”
These stark business realities, combined with the opportunity digital technology provides in terms of creating and distributing new value, and ever-higher consumer expectations, created a burning platform for change, Allen said.
“We have to change our business as we can’t continue to operate in the same way,” she said.
Step 1: Executive buy-in
The first step for digital change is securing executive and board-wide buy-in.
“It’s only in the last 2-3 months we’ve had the whole board engaged in conversations around a digital strategy and the priority of that,” she said.
So how did Allen do it? “In the last eight to nine months, we've created that burning platform and started getting the business to work through a digital strategy and put in place a holistic transformation framework,” she said. “In some ways, we have made amazing progress in eight months.”
The change management framework Allen uses is a Cap Gemini one developed off the back of hundreds of company insights and best practices.
“What Cap Gemini identified is that companies enjoying the most profit from digital aren’t those just executing well, but those who also ensure they have top-down engagement, and that executives and board lead the change but there’s also grassroots engagement,” she said.
“Our framework deals with connecting digital to the business vision; deals with governance, which we’ve now set up with our board; deals with engagement with staff, and we’re setting up a digital literacy program across the business. Then it deals with process, people and technical capabilities needed for transformation. At the centre of it all is what your digital strategy is. All of these elements need to be in place for change to be sustainable.”
The conversation didn’t start with that framework, however, but with the ‘why’ - the business context, technological change, speed of innovation and rate of adoption, and change in consumer expectations and power.
“We brought that to life with FMCG and other sector examples, which cemented the fact that it’s happening to our own industry,” Allen said. “From there, we’ve worked with a cross-functional group from all levels of the organisation and through various workshops to work through what should be the focus of the strategy.”
Milestones to date
One of the first big ticks for Allen is establishing a governance body to spearhead digital transformation. At a board level, it includes the head of HR, head of commercial, and the CFO representing finance and IT, while at a leadership level, it includes Allen, the CIO and several supporting functions.
The purpose is to ensure business functions and IT are aligned with the digital strategy and executive team, as well as ensuring a sufficient alignment of resources.
“That was a good milestone because it gave us an opportunity to get the board engaged in a dialogue around digital,” Allen said.
“The other big milestone is that we have developed the strategy and had it agreed on by the board. Using the transformation framework and working through the key pillars, we’ve determined where the focus of our digital strategy is going to be.
“We have already established leadership capabilities at Simplot and identified digital expertise as one of those top 10,” she continued. To do this, the company has defined what each staff member is required to achieve, by level of the organisation, in terms of behaviour and performance.
“From the MD to the person on the phones, it’s about how you exhibit digital expertise,” Allen said.
“The other positive is we’ve embedded digital content into our leadership training program here. That’s around why we’re changing, what we’re changing, and examples in the business to bring this to life.”
From the MD to the person on the phones, it’s about how you exhibit digital expertise
In July, Simplot launches a digital literacy program aimed at getting all employees past the awareness phase and into action. The program will include ‘lunch-and-learn’ and workshop sessions, where external speakers and facilitators will deliver more tangible insights on digital capability, Allen said.
“There are also plans to run reverse mentoring with the board so that enables them to start leading this in a powerful way,” she said.
Restructuring marketing to match
The marketing function hasn’t been forgotten in all of this, although Allen admitted the “worlds have not converged just yet”.
What the marketing team has embarked on is an initiative to redesign the customer experience in retail. Allen believed this will form the basis of significant brand and marketing program change for Simplot. The CX initiative also sees Allen working closely with the CIO on a range of aspects internally, including organisational design.
“I think what will happen through that process is it’ll come back full circle as to how to differentiate proprietary brands. Then that will change how we operate from a marketing perspective and how we go-to-market,” she said.
“For example, we might identify a territory that all brands could use to differentiate and engage with consumers, or we might find opportunities relevant for different proprietary brands. The customer experience and how we engage with end consumers is what we are trying to solve and that, in turn, will influence future marketing plans.”
In the meantime, Simplot is endeavouring to accelerate digital marketing in a more integrated way around brand activation and go-to-market programs, Allen said.
The CMO as chief customer officer
Allen said her appointment at Simplot also sees the marketing function with an end-to-end customer engagement focus for the first time. One of the projects most progressed to date is redefining the B2B customer experience.
“We have taken a design-led approach to solving and developing solutions for that segment, and using innovative new frameworks and tools do to that,” Allen said. “We’re now at the proof stage, where we move into development and delivery and start testing things with customers in an iterative way.”
Once some proof points of influencing consumer behaviours have been achieved, Simplot will work to operationalise that initiative and embed that into the organisation, Allen said. A core aspect of this program is identifying customer pain points and opportunities Simplot can add value. Tools being used include ethnographic research and direct customer observations.
“We spend up to four hours at time in the environment, discussing, talking, looking for clues, taking pictures in their freezers and looking at how they order inventory, and bringing all that insight back and clustering that into themes,” Allen explained. “We then go through an innovative ideation process to develop solutions using stimulus from all over the world and from different sectors, to try and deliver solutions against those pain points.”
From there, it’s about co-creating with consumers and running potential solutions to try to strengthen, break and strengthen ideas again.
“Eventually, at the end of that process, out pops a variety of solutions that we think look compelling and that customers will use as well as influence their behaviour, and create that end-user loyalty we’re seeking,” Allen said. “We’ve gone through that process and now we’re deciding on which ones to build.
“Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is disrupt the way we go to market and disrupt our own thinking. We’re trying to break the shackles and ways we’ve always thought about tackling this segment, and take a new approach to innovation and create a new experience when doing that.”
Allen admitted the moment of truth is approaching but hasn’t yet arrived.
“Once we say we’re going to start building this particular solution, and this is totally unrelated to our BAU, people are going to feel uncomfortable,” she said. “But that for me says we’re doing the right thing. If it makes you comfortable, it’s probably not pushing the boundaries enough.”
Alongside fostering ideas internally, Simplot is looking at engaging with startups and third-party partners.
“Rather than always have to build these solutions ourselves, we can sometimes others to build and work out if we’d like to invest in them,” Allen commented.
Role of the CMO
Given all the change Allen is spearheading, it’s not surprising she sees the role of the CMO as one that’s undergoing significant transformation.
“Those three ‘whys’ for digital change at Simplot – the business challenge, technological environment, and then the customer expectations and shift in power – all relate back to me as an individual and to any marketing professional,” she said.
“If that’s the state of consumer expectations and technological environment, how do we as marketers shift our capabilities, knowledge and talent to be able to add business value to organisations? Really, a CMO has to understand that environment and the business context, but also what’s happening across industries.”
For Allen, all CMOs also play a role in digital transformation, as well as fostering a company culture of innovation, customer centricity, and being brave.
“It’s a leadership role ultimately, but what you’re trying to lead is changing and it’s not about traditional marketing anymore,” she added. “It’s far more reaching – it becomes more about the experience, and less about the products and services.”
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO Australia conversation on LinkedIn: CMO Australia, join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia, or check us out on Google+: google.com/+CmoAu